Several years ago, Business Insider ran an article titled “7 Brutally Honest Job Rejection Letters.” Here are just two of them.
Sub Pop, an independent record label in Seattle, sent the following rejection letter: Dear Loser, Thank you for sending your demo materials to Sun Pop for consideration. Presently, your demo package is one of a massive quantity of material we receive everyday at Sub Pop World Headquarters. [Your material] is on its way through the great lower intestines that is the talent acquisitions process. We appreciate your interest and wish the best in your pursuit. Kind regards. P.S. This letter is known as a "rejection letter."
New Delta Review, a literary magazine in Baton Rouge, sent the following rejection letter: Thank you for submitting. Unfortunately, the work you sent is quite terrible. Please forgive the form rejection, but it would take too much of my time to tell you exactly how terrible it was. So again, sorry for the form letter (Vivian Giang, “7 Brutally Honest Job Rejection Letters,” Business Insider, 6-24-13; www.PreachingToday.com).
Ouch! With friends like these, who needs enemies.
Today, instead of sending a rejection letter, people just ghost you. They abruptly end all contact with you, especially electronic contact, like texts, emails, and chats.
Sad to say, people do that with God. If they don’t out and out reject Him, they simply ghost him, ending all contact with Him. So, what does God do when He’s ghosted? Well, if you have your Bibles, I invite you to turn with me to Ezekiel 10, Ezekiel 10, where the nation of Israel ghosted Him.
Ezekiel 10:1-5 Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in appearance like a throne. And he said to the man clothed in linen, “Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he went in before my eyes. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house, when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD. And the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when he speaks (ESV).
When Solomon built the temple 500 years previously, the Bible says, “fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the temple” (2 Chronicles 7:1). Here, Ezekiel sees the glory of the Lord leaving the temple.
God’s sapphire-like throne above the cherubim had moved from inside the temple to its south side, as He was getting ready to leave Jerusalem altogether. When Israel’s worship center was at Shiloh, it was destroyed shortly after God’s glory had departed from it (1 Samuel 4; Jeremiah 7:12-14). Now, the same fate awaits the temple in Jerusalem.
That’s because His own people had rejected Him. In that very temple complex, they were worshipping idols (Ezekiel 8-9). Amir Tsarfati says, “Imagine a woman bringing her boyfriend into the family room, snuggling up to her beau on the couch, flipping on the television, then starting a make-out session. All the while, her husband is watching the disrespectful display from his easy chair” (Amar Tsarfati, Exploring Ezekiel, Harvest House Publishers, 2025, p.57).
No wonder God was leaving His house. His bride, Israel, had brought other lovers into the house, and He could no longer stand it. They had literally turned their backs on God to worship the sun and other false gods (Ezekiel 8:16). However, before He leaves, God commanded the “man clothed in linen” to scatter burning coals over the city of Jerusalem.
Ezekiel 10:6-8 And when he commanded the man clothed in linen, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” he went in and stood beside a wheel. And a cherub stretched out his hand from between the cherubim to the fire that was between the cherubim, and took some of it and put it into the hands of the man clothed in linen, who took it and went out. The cherubim appeared to have the form of a human hand under their wings (ESV).
God was going to judge Jerusalem with fire, which is exactly what happened when the Babylonians overran the city. 2 Kings 25 says, “Nebuzaradan, the captain of the bodyguard, a servant of the king of Babylon, came to Jerusalem. And he burned the house of the LORD and the king’s house and all the houses of Jerusalem; every great house he burned down” (2 Kings 25:8-9). When God left the city, His protection left with Him and its citizens were doomed.
Ezekiel 10:9-22 And I looked, and behold, there were four wheels beside the cherubim, one beside each cherub, and the appearance of the wheels was like sparkling beryl. And as for their appearance, the four had the same likeness, as if a wheel were within a wheel. When they went, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went, but in whatever direction the front wheel faced, the others followed without turning as they went. And their whole body, their rims, and their spokes, their wings, and the wheels were full of eyes all around—the wheels that the four of them had. As for the wheels, they were called in my hearing “the whirling wheels.” And every one had four faces: the first face was the face of the cherub, and the second face was a human face, and the third the face of a lion, and the fourth the face of an eagle. And the cherubim mounted up. These were the living creatures that I saw by the Chebar canal. And when the cherubim went, the wheels went beside them. And when the cherubim lifted up their wings to mount up from the earth, the wheels did not turn from beside them. When they stood still, these stood still, and when they mounted up, these mounted up with them, for the spirit of the living creatures was in them. Then the glory of the LORD went out from the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubim. And the cherubim lifted up their wings and mounted up from the earth before my eyes as they went out, with the wheels beside them. And they stood at the entrance of the east gate of the house of the LORD, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. These were the living creatures that I saw underneath the God of Israel by the Chebar canal; and I knew that they were cherubim. Each had four faces, and each four wings, and underneath their wings the likeness of human hands. And as for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the Chebar canal. Each one of them went straight forward (ESV).
This is the same vision Ezekiel had when he was with the exiles by the Chebar canal (Ezekiel 1). That vision comforted him, because it demonstrated that God was still with him even when he was far away from home in exile. Here, Ezekiel sees God leaving the temple in Jerusalem. At first, God hovers over the eastern gate with His cherubim. Then, He leaves the city altogether. Skip down to the end of chapter 11.
Ezekiel 11:22-25 Then the cherubim lifted up their wings, with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel was over them. And the glory of the LORD went up from the midst of the city and stood on the mountain that is on the east side of the city. And the Spirit lifted me up and brought me in the vision by the Spirit of God into Chaldea, to the exiles. Then the vision that I had seen went up from me. And I told the exiles all the things that the LORD had shown me (ESV).
It’s a sad message Ezekiel has to tell. The glory of God has departed from their home, and doom is on its way. So, what do you do when God’s glory leaves your home? What do you do when the evidence of His presence is gone? Well first…
YOU MOURN.
You hang your head and cry. You grieve over the loss.
That’s what Ezekiel most certainly did along with those who were with him in exile. And that’s what I do sometimes when I think about the spiritual condition of our own great country. I hear stories of revival, of hundreds of young people turning to the Lord, especially after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. But then I think about what brought our country to such divisiveness and animosity.
It began in the 1960’s when we kicked prayer out of the schools. It continued when we removed the 10 commandments from our courthouses and tried to remove God from government. Then we celebrated immorality, calling it “gay pride” and recently elected godless communists to positions of power. Now, our political disagreements have become violent, and we wonder where has the glory gone.
Is God abandoning this great nation, founded on Christian principles, because we have abandoned Him? If that’s the case, then it should bring us to our knees. It should bring tears to our eyes, and we should mourn the loss.
On a brisk November day in 1202, the militia in the Italian city of Assisi marched through the city's streets. Knights sat proudly atop their steeds, citizens cheered, and banners waved as troops filed out the city gates, down the gradual slope upon which Assisi sits, to the expansive plain that spreads out below the town. Meanwhile the militia of rival Perugia (just 15 miles west) was also on the march, and by mid-morning the two armies studied each other from less than half a mile away.
Then Perugia charged. Suddenly the plain was filled with the thunder of hooves and the shouts of men intoxicated with fear and hate and the sheer joy of battle. For the next few hours, the fighting raged over the plain, spilling into the woods and private castles. Sweat poured off of man and beast, as did blood, as merchants, farmers, and nobility, called upon to defend their rights and uphold their town's honor, swore and slashed at one another and then ran, some in pursuit, others for their lives.
The warriors of Assisi were defeated and then slaughtered. Those who tried to hide in the thick woods or in caves were hunted down like animals. Some were taken prisoner; others were mercilessly killed.
A citizen of Assisi wrote, “Oh, how disfigured are the bodies on the field of battle, and how mutilated and broken are their members! The hand is not to be found with the foot, nor the entrails joined to the chest; on the forehead horrible windows open out instead of eyes. Oh, you of Assisi, what a dark hour was this!”
It was an especially dark hour for one 21-year-old member of Assisi's elite Company of Knights. He was a wealthy merchant's son; and like all young men of his day, he had spent much of his youth memorizing the ballads of knights and ladies and the glory of battle. Now, he found himself bound in chains, dragged off as a prisoner across a battlefield littered with the bodies of childhood friends, through Perugia's streets lined with taunting onlookers (Mark Galli, Francis of Assisi and His World, Lion, 2002; www. PreachingToday.com).
The young man's name was Francis—yes, the now famous Francis of Assisi, whose search for glory brought him shame. Thankfully, that is not the end of his story, because when God got a hold of Francis, God transformed him into a champion of peace. God turned disaster into a demonstration of His grace. God used tragedy to bring about a His own good will.
Do you want God to do that for you in your dark hour? Then first of all mourn. Mourn over your sin. Mourn over God’s glory lost in your life and in your country. Mourn and then…
REPENT.
Turn from your idols to the true and living God. Stop depending on yourself and start depending on your only Savior, God Himself. That’s what Israel’s leaders failed to do.
Ezekiel 11:1-4 The Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the east gate of the house of the LORD, which faces east. And behold, at the entrance of the gateway there were twenty-five men. And I saw among them Jaazaniah the son of Azzur, and Pelatiah the son of Benaiah, princes of the people. And he said to me, “Son of man, these are the men who devise iniquity and who give wicked counsel in this city; who say, ‘The time is not near to build houses. This city is the cauldron, and we are the meat.’ Therefore prophesy against them; prophesy, O son of man” (ESV).
These are the same 25 men who earlier stood in the courtyard of the temple “with their backs to the temple of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun” (Ezekiel 8:16). They had turned their backs on God, and now they are urging the people, “Is not the time near to build houses?” It’s not a statement in verse 3. It’s a question. “Is not the time near to build houses?” With Babylon breathing down their necks, they’re lying to the people. They’re saying Jerusalem is safe. Go ahead and build your houses, because Jerusalem is like a big pot protecting the meat or the people in it.
The watchmen are supposed to warn people of danger (Ezekiel 3:16-21). These watchmen ignore the danger, telling people Jerusalem is safe. The truth is, Jerusalem IS not safe. It’s like a big pot in which the meat is cooked, not protected.
In Ezekiel 24, as Babylon lays siege to Jerusalem, God says, “Set on the pot, set it on; pour in water also; put in it the pieces of meat, all the good pieces, the thigh and the shoulder; fill it with choice bones. Take the choicest one of the flock; pile the logs under it; boil it well; seethe also its bones in it… Heap on the logs, kindle the fire, boil the meat well, mix in the spices, and let the bones be burned up” (Ezekiel 24:1-5, 10).
The city they depend on to protect them will become the pot in which the enemy cooks them until they are burned up. And if they don’t die in the city, God will dump them out of the city where they will fall by the sword.
Ezekiel 11:5-12 And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and he said to me, “Say, Thus says the LORD: So you think, O house of Israel. For I know the things that come into your mind. You have multiplied your slain in this city and have filled its streets with the slain. Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Your slain whom you have laid in the midst of it, they are the meat, and this city is the cauldron, but you shall be brought out of the midst of it. You have feared the sword, and I will bring the sword upon you, declares the Lord GOD. And I will bring you out of the midst of it, and give you into the hands of foreigners, and execute judgments upon you. You shall fall by the sword. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the LORD. This city shall not be your cauldron, nor shall you be the meat in the midst of it. I will judge you at the border of Israel, and you shall know that I am the LORD. For you have not walked in my statutes, nor obeyed my rules, but have acted according to the rules of the nations that are around you” (ESV).
You rejected me, so I will reject you. I will judge you outside the city where you will die.
Ezekiel 11:13 And it came to pass, while I was prophesying, that Pelatiah the son of Benaiah died. Then I fell down on my face and cried out with a loud voice and said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Will you make a full end of the remnant of Israel?” (ESV)
One of them dies on the spot, putting an exclamation point on God’s warning. Now, with their backs towards the temple and their faces towards the sun, all they had to do was literally turn around.
When Solomon built the temple, he prayed, “O LORD, God of Israel… If they sin against you… and you… give them to an enemy… yet if they repent with all their heart and with all their soul… and pray toward… the house that I have built for your name, then hear… their prayer and their pleas, and maintain their cause and forgive your people who have sinned against you” (2 Chronicles 6:36-39).
All they had to do was turn around and face the temple again. All they had to do was turn from their false god to the true and living God and plead for mercy. They refused to do it and so they died.
Please, don’t you make the same mistake. Turn from your idols to the true and living God. Turn from whatever it is you look to for security and trust the only One who can secure your future. Trust your only God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Wabush is a town in a remote portion of Labrador, Canada. It was completely isolated for some time until a road was cut through the wilderness to reach it. Wabush now has one road leading into it, and so, only one road leading out. Now, if someone traveled the unpaved road for six to eight hours to get into Wabush, there is only one way he or she could leave—by turning around.
Each of us, by birth, arrives in a town called Sin. As in Wabush, there is only one way out—a road built by God himself. But in order to take that road, one must first turn around. That complete about-face is what the bible calls repentance, and without it, there's no way out of town (Brian Weatherdon, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Leadership, Vol. 8, no. 2; www.PreachingToday.com).
Do you want to get out of the miserable town of sin? Then just turn around. Stop going your own way and turn to the Lord, who died for your sins and rose again. Trust Him with your life and avoid the judgment to come.
Just a few years ago, Eleanor Margolis in Ukraine lamented her agnosticism and mused about the benefits of faith. She writes:
It was in February, while Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, that I started to wonder if it was time to find God. Definite God, that is. Not the half-hearted agnostic one built on a Jenga tower of uncertainty. The addition of a heightened nuclear threat from Putin made me desperate for a vengeful Old Testament God. Someone to smite the warmongers and oligarchs, the evil ones who “know not what they do.” When nothing is left of civilization but the cockroaches.
The last time I felt so envious of religious people was when my mum was dying of cancer. Certainty about an afterlife sure would’ve come in handy then. And prayer might have created the illusion that I had some power over the situation. Instead, I was treated to the spiritual equivalent of the shrug emoji. I became a devout follower of one true religion of the 21st century: uncertainty. Those of us without traditional religion are left to make our peace with uncertainty (Eleanor Margolis, “I’m agnostic, but news about the Ukraine war is so scary right now that I’ve considered becoming a nun,” INews, 03-14-22; www.PreachingToday.com).
How sad, because faith in Christ gives you certainty in hard times! The Bible says, “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may KNOW that you have eternal life” (1 John 5:13).
So, when the glory has gone, when you find yourself in darkness, yes, mourn, but don’t stop there. Repent—turn from your idols to Christ. Then…
HOPE.
Anticipate the future God has for you. Look forward to the day when God’s glory will return and He will restore your soul.
That was Ezekiel’s message to the Jews in exile. This dark chapter is not the end of your story, no! God will be with you in these dark days, and He will restore you to His glorious presence forever!
Ezekiel 11:14-16 And the word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far from the LORD; to us this land is given for a possession.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone (ESV).
Even though the exiles are far away from home and from God’s temple, God promises to be “a sanctuary to them”—literally, in the Hebrew, “a little temple,” in which He would dwell with them in their captivity.
My dear believing friends, God has not abandoned you in your pain. He is right there with you. So, please, find your sanctuary in Him—Don’t run AWAY from Him. Run TO Him in your stress. Or if you have to, CRAWL to Him and find rest for your soul.
When David was fleeing his son, Absalom, who had just organized a coup against him, he wrote these words: “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me” (Psalm 23:4).
So, like David running for his life, or like the exiles far away from home, no matter where you find yourself today, find hope in the presence of God. Then find hope in the promise of God to restore you. That was Ezekiel’s message to the exiles.
Ezekiel 11:17-20 Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God (ESV).
God will bring them back to their home. But more than that, God will change their hearts to love and obey Him. God will restore them physically and spiritually.
Now, this was God’s promise to the nation of Israel, which awaits a future fulfillment. To be sure, God returned His people to their land after their Babylonian captivity, but more than 500 years later, they rejected their Messiah, and the Romans scattered the Jews all over the world. Today, the nation of Israel is back in their land—a miracle in and of itself—but their hearts are still far away from the Lord. However, when Jesus returns, the Bible says, “They will look on Him whom they have pierced,” they will mourn in repentance (Zechariah 12:10), and “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26).
Israel’s full restoration is yet future, but God promises to restore all who come to Him today, Jew or Gentile. The Bible says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Please, if you haven’t done it already, trust Christ with your life and let Him change you from the inside out. Trust Christ with your life and let Him turn your heart of stone into a heart of flesh that loves and obeys Him.
Dr. Seuss illustrates this change of heart in his story How the Grinch Stole Christmas. In the story, a hairy, green, cantankerous beast, known as the Grinch, looks down on the town of Whoville from his home on a mountain of garbage, and what he sees disgusts him. The Whos in Whoville are getting ready for Christmas. So on Christmas Eve, the Grinch sneaks into Whoville and steals all their presents and Christmas trees. The next morning, instead of wailing, the Grinch hears singing. He hasn’t stolen Christmas after all because Christmas doesn’t come from a store. Take a look (Show Video: How the Grinch Stole Christmas, heart scene, www.youtube.com/watch?v=1aSBrmQaL88).
The Grinch wonders, “How could it be so. It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes, or bags. Maybe Christmas doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”
Suddenly, he throws himself to the ground, convulsing as his heart grows three times the size it was before. He laughs. He cries. He claims to feel all toasty inside. Unfamiliar with tears, he thinks he is leaking, while a brilliant shaft of sunlight bathes his green face and reveals a sincere smile. The conversion of the Grinch is matched by a brilliant sunrise (How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Universal Pictures, 2000, written by Dr. Seuss, Jeff Price, and Peter Seaman, directed by Ron Howard; www.PreachingToday.com).
God can do the same for you if you just open your heart to Him.
When the glory is gone and you find yourself in a dark place, yes, mourn, but don’t stop there. Repent—turn from your idols to Christ. Then hope—look forward to your restoration.
Russell Moore put it this way: The next Billy Graham might be drunk right now. The next Jonathan Edwards might be the man driving in front of you with the Darwin Fish bumper decal. The next Charles Wesley might currently be a misogynistic, profanity-spewing hip-hop artist. The next Charles Spurgeon might be managing an abortion clinic today. The next Augustine of Hippo might be a sexually promiscuous cult member right now, just like, come to think of it, the first Augustine of Hippo was.
But the Spirit of God can turn all that around. And seems to delight to do so. The new birth doesn't just transform lives, creating repentance and faith; it also provides new leadership to the church, and fulfills Jesus' promise to gift his church with everything needed for her onward march through space and time” (Russell Moore, “Could the Next Billy Graham Be Drunk Right Now?” Russell Moore blog, 10-1-15; www.PreachingToday.com).
Even in these dark days, think about the possibilities as God gets a hold of your life and the lives of those who turn to Him.
